La Liga round-up: Atletico Madrid keep in title hunt with win over Deportivo
Posted Monday, April 02, 2018 by Skysports.com
Kevin Gameiro celebrates his strike for Atletico Madrid against Deportivo
Kevin Gameiro converted a match-winning penalty as Atletico Madrid beat struggling Deportivo 1-0 to remain in contention for the La Liga title.
The French striker tucked away a spot-kick after Saul was fouled in the Depor box after 34 minutes.
Midway through the second half at the Wanda Metropolitano, Lucas Hernandez made an excellent challenge to deny Depor what looked like a certain equalising goal as Borja Valle shaped to shoot.
Earlier, Rodrigo fired Valencia to a 1-0 victory at Leganes that keeps alive their hopes of finishing above the Madrid giants.
Los Che were for a long while Barcelona's closest challengers for the title, leading both Atletico and Real Madrid until suffering three straight defeats at the end of January.
Rodrigo scored the only goal as Valencia beat Leganes on Sunday
Mid-table Leganes were not prepared to roll over at Butarque and successfully frustrated Valencia until, in the 61st minute, Rodrigo found the bottom corner with a shot from outside of the area.
Gonzalo Castro grabbed a lifeline for Malaga as his 37th-minute penalty secured a vital 1-0 victory over Villarreal - a first league win since December 10 - for the bottom side.
Escaping the drop still looks a tall order for Jose Gonzalez's men as they are 11 points shy of safety.
Alaves ended a run of three successive losses with a goalless draw at Espanyol.
The Basque side, who started the day in the bottom five but 10 points clear of the drop zone, had a late John Guidetti effort ruled out for offside as they recorded their first away draw of the campaign.
There was also a stalemate between Eibar and Real Sociedad in Gipuzkoa.
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